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swan_towerI'm not going to list all the books I brought home from World Fantasy, because I don't intend to keep all of them.
It isn't meant as an insult. Normally I fly to WFC, and that necessitates strict limitations on what I bring home. This time we drove, though, and so I grabbed copies of things I knew I would never read, because I can (and will) donate them to the library.
The thing is, "I'll never read this" isn't necessarily a judgment of quality. We did the traditional thing of reading the opening page out loud, and I described one of the books from my bag as "a perfectly competent example of a subgenre I'm bored with." Other people still enjoy it, and that's fine; more power to them. Or take the Pathfinder novels I received: I didn't even bother with the opening page, because I know I'm not interested in the first place. But somebody at the library book sale might very well snatch it up.
If I really thought a given book was bad, I wouldn't even donate it to the library. Like approximately 93% of the con attendees, I dumped one book on the swap table, and thought "good riddance." I won't name and shame the author, but it was self-published and rampagingly full of the stalest cliches, including one that I find offensive. I'm not inflicting that on the library.
So I won't list all the books I brought home, because I don't want to imply a major criticism when I don't keep them. But there were some really good-looking ones in there (including Guardian of the Dead! Which was on my wish list!), so look for those to show up in my "books read" posts later.
It isn't meant as an insult. Normally I fly to WFC, and that necessitates strict limitations on what I bring home. This time we drove, though, and so I grabbed copies of things I knew I would never read, because I can (and will) donate them to the library.
The thing is, "I'll never read this" isn't necessarily a judgment of quality. We did the traditional thing of reading the opening page out loud, and I described one of the books from my bag as "a perfectly competent example of a subgenre I'm bored with." Other people still enjoy it, and that's fine; more power to them. Or take the Pathfinder novels I received: I didn't even bother with the opening page, because I know I'm not interested in the first place. But somebody at the library book sale might very well snatch it up.
If I really thought a given book was bad, I wouldn't even donate it to the library. Like approximately 93% of the con attendees, I dumped one book on the swap table, and thought "good riddance." I won't name and shame the author, but it was self-published and rampagingly full of the stalest cliches, including one that I find offensive. I'm not inflicting that on the library.
So I won't list all the books I brought home, because I don't want to imply a major criticism when I don't keep them. But there were some really good-looking ones in there (including Guardian of the Dead! Which was on my wish list!), so look for those to show up in my "books read" posts later.
